Software for distributed manufacturing

General
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Hey all - I’m catching up through emails and just found this forum! Connected with @AndrewLamb at GOSH 2022 in Panama and discussed our distributed manufacturing efforts among some folks in the GOSH community - we published initial concepts from our meetings here.

I wanted to share that may be useful here (or not) is on the software end.

We’ve been using SurveyStack (surveystack.io, an open source project that we develop) for documentation, QA/QC, directions and product tracking to manufacture our reflectometer for a few years. It’s flexible and can connect directly to hardware via UART / Serial connection or over a network. We also use it for running our soil and food testing lab. The Beneficial Bio folks also developed some surveys for their processes. As a program, it’s very (very!) flexible in what it can do!

Anyway, just wanted to offer it as a resource if it makes sense for other projects. Happy to support anyone interested or provide more info, just holler.

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Welcome @gbathree , so glad you’re here! The Distributed Manufacturing of Open Hardware Report is an excellent read; I especially appreciate the focus on trust and qualifiers for what constitutes accurate documentation - that is something for which many of us have great concern.

I’ve taken a look at SurveyStack previously, just checking it out again now… wondering what you think @kny5 and @max_w , given our ongoing work with OKW Manufacturing World Map Data Award Recipients and potential utility for ongoing data collection for mapping spaces and machinery… :thinking:

I think I’ll be hollering your way in the near future @gbathree !

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Ah, now I remember @gbathree - I’d been chatting with Sebastian Klemm about SurveyStack a few months ago in the context of the maker passport research I am conducting. Yes, I am definitely reaching out!

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